Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Hehehe - only time I will spell the colour "gray". (In honour of David Gray naturally. Yes I'm that easily amused.) I finished my skirt in time for the concert, which was seriously bucket-list amazing! Best.Event.Ever.

Here's a dodgy phone pic of how I wore it to work afterwards. I wore the silver top (a Vogue Issey Miyake design I made a few years ago), no tights, and a dressier jacket to the concert. Too excited to get a pic of that! Did I mention that the concert was AMAZING!?

And after I finished that I started this dress. Which I put aside for a while to work on something else, then came back to and finished in record time. If I'd gone full-on from start to finish it would have been done in less than a fortnight!

I wanted to try this dress pattern (the long version of my words top) before I commit to a more labour-intensive embellishment idea. I like it! I love the cardy I'm wearing in the above pic - a mid weight long sleeved bolero from work, which I do not yet own. It matches my dress perfectly, so I think it might be my next purchase.....

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

I've long been guilty of abandoning a project part-way through in favour of one which takes my fancy Right Now. Unless I have a specific deadline I have come to embrace this - I won't be working on the project I'm not inspired by anyway, so I might as well set it aside. Usually I come back to these projects with renewed enthusiasm or ideas.

I've just set aside my current Alabama Chanin project (the pale orange skirt and top I set aside to go back to the rose dress which in turn had been set aside for those!) because in April David Gray is playing in Christchurch. He is my absolute all time favourite singer so I am positively bouncing with excitement and counting down till the concert (which I'm going to with my sister). Naturally that needs a new outfit. I would LOVE to have made a grey rose dress, but two months isn't long enough, so I figured I'd make a skirt. (I've been having fun winding up Georgia by saying I should wear all grey because his name is Gray. She says "No. Mum. Just No")

I started with this dress, which I got in an Op Shop (I think it was Paperbag Princess) for $2 last year. No way would I wear it like this.

However, it's a lovely soft rayon knit and has only one side seam and one shoulder seam, meaning I could harvest the whole thing for fabric. After cutting the four skirt panels there is a nice big chunk left, which will become something else.

Therese asked how I print onto fabric. Well it's very low tech. I cut a stencil from laminator plastic (I get the nice people at Warehouse Stationery to run me through an empty piece, which costs me a few dollars). This one is made from some offcuts they gave me for nothing, taped together. I apply the fabric paint (Fastex brand, because that is what is available locally, and it works just fine) using a foam roller and tray which cost about $9 from Bunnings. I leave the painted panels to dry overnight then heat set the paint with an iron.

This is the first panel with most roses stitched and snipped, a few beaded, and a few left to bead if I have time before April.

Closer shot. The underlayer is pale blue, but appears quite greyish against the darker grey. The paint is white, but looks pale grey on the dark grey as well.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

I abandoned this dress last summer, in a bout of apathy over our dismal summer. It sat in many, many pieces for a very long time until I found my "to sew" list actually empty of stuff for other people. I've been chipping away at it for a while, and today seemed like a good day to finish - start the new year by completing a UFO! (Note that for a change I am looking at the camera, and smiling - David is on holiday and took these for me!)

I'm not thrilled with it, but that is not the fault of the pattern, which I absolutely love. I used two rather light, and not opaque cottons. Underlining gave the required opacity but created considerable bulk which was difficult to deal with. Inside there are places that look like a total dog's breakfast, and my seam matching along one side seam is sooooooo not up to my usual very anal standard. Since matching the seams was going to cause more problems I elected to leave them be and be satisfied that at least the seam lengths matched and the zip is smooth.

The biggest issue is simply that I am not the same size that I was when I started it. It fits, but not that well. Not the fault of dress or pattern. Being cotton, it will give a little with wear, which will help. (Oh yes, I am definitely going to wear this!)

I'll just have to make it again, in a more appropriate fabric and size. Because I still neeeeeeeeed this dress. It is such a cool design, and a fun, challenging make. Things I really love in a pattern.

About Me

Who am I? I'm a lifelong sewer with a degree in Clothing and Textiles so I can pretend I know stuff, and a husband and five kids to remind me that there is more to life than fabric.
I sew because I love it.